June 22-26, 2011 . . . Smith Falls to Kingston, Ontario

Bonnie found a map . . . you can follow our route from Albany, New York, on the Hudson River to Waterford, west to Little Falls and on to Oswego. Then back east to Clayton, New York; over to Gananoque, Canada, to Brockville, to Montreal. Thence west on the Ottawa River to Ottawa, to Smith Falls, to where we are now, Kingston. On Monday, the 27th, we will go to Trenton then up, west, on the Trent-Severn waterway to Port Severn.

Up here . . . there are many black squirrels . . . this one, one of three, was beside SONATA at Smith Falls.

The Smith Falls water tower in the light rain, mist, of the morning as we leave to continue on to Kingston.

At the Narrows, Lock 35 on the Rideau Canal, Bonnie maneuvers SONATA into the lock. If you look close you can see that the bridge is opened by hand, the young lady is turning a crank that wheels the bridge open.

The channel, the passages are very narrow here. Where is the channel? Some appear no wider than one and one-half times the width of SONATA. Some locations, where there is a "corner", a turn in the channel . . . there is a sign to "Sound your Whistle." Love my new Kahlenberg whistle.

For the evening, the 23rd, we stopped at Chaffey's Lock, Lock 37; on the lower side of the lock, toward Kingston.

Now this is a scary sight! The "masked Canadian yellow string mouth sea monster;" Charlie. Laugh all you want . . . coming up the Erie SONATA's propellors struck many dead-heads and logs; through the St. Lawrence, this same event repeated itself. In the Ottawa River we were in 80 feet of water and struck something, not once, but twice. The rapid boom, boom, boom, of the propellor blades places panic in your heart. The sea monster went over the stern, and, and in the clear water, looked at the bottom, the shafts, the rudders, the propellors; ran his hand down the side of each blade . . . NO DAMAGE! We are so fortunate!

More beautiful narrow channels . . . with a left turn sign.

SONATA's wonderful 2010C Garmin GPS Chartplotter gives us our location and at least an indication of which way the "road" will turn.

We arrived in Kingston's Inner Harbor after a two plus hour wait at the last four, Kingston Mills, locks, Locks 46-49. A SeaRay had engine problems, could not start . . . the operator had left the airconditioning on while away from the boat and the battery was dead. We anchored late in the evening in the Inner Harbor to await morning and passage through the Causeway Bridge and our berth at the City Confederation Basin Marina.

With the skilful linehandling work of Stephen Anderson, Bonnie slipped SONATA into its berth, K6, next to MY CYN. We met and talked with Stephen and Cynthia Anderson, of MY CYN, and their daughter and granddaughter . . . about the Downeast Loop. MY CYN is on the Downeast Loop and will proceed outbound on the St. Lawrence to Boldt Castle on Hart Island, and on to Brockville, Montreal, and beyond . . . MY CYN is home ported in Naples. We will see them again in the spring.